@daniel001 I quit scrnching the hair back up on any of my doodles. Especially the ones that get a longer haircut. It seems like they were matting worse than they usually were. Or the ones that normally wasn't and then requested that they wanted them curly came back matted. I felt like I was contributing to the problem instead of the solution.
@daniel001 So I know nothing about grooming or terms other than what I’ve seen here, but my goldendoodle (who i brush very often bc of this sub) keeps her top knot pretty long and fluffy, has a clean face, a 5/8 inch (i think) on the body and her feet are a bit shorter, and they keep her tail at like 1 inch. I LOVE the poodle face on her, but keep her body+tail+feet fluffy and longer bc she’s a MSD (multipurpose service dog) and the texture really helps ground me. I hope this makes sense.
@daniel001 I think one of the small things that instantly poodles a doodle is shaving the top of the muzzle. It elongates the nose and exaggerates the poodle heritage. Usually, when the owner doesn’t know specifically what they mean by “don’t poodle my doodle”, it means that. That’s been my experience.
@daniel001 Luckily I've never been told that by any owner, but we also have no poodles who get poodled.
I think most people don't even realize that the clean face poodles have is shaved that way, and otherwise they have a fluffy beard too, so they are asking that you don't give their doodle a clean face.
@daniel001 I’m the opposite. My dog has a strange split coat so he has poodle curls on his head and schnauzer feathers on his legs. Body is a bit of a mix. So we shave his face and fluff up his top knot, and keep his lovely feathers too.
@daniel001 I think it means they want it to be Curley , Teddy face no clean feet not band around tail.
I took a class that said to give the haircut first, wash it then let it cage dry. I have several clients that go “you finally get it” .
@daniel001 it doesn’t mean one solid thing. i’ve seen groomers leave the body long and do a teddy bear head and the owners still say “he looks like a poodle!”. the best i can give you is they don’t want them to look cleaned up and nice. they want the scraggly, dirty muppet look. when a doodle owner tells me that, i set expectations immediately and tell them that i will do a teddy bear head, not a poodle head, round the feet, and do whatever length on the body they want (provided that it’s not matted) and that the hair will become curly again in a few days, but it’ll be straight after the groom. that tends to comfort them and i don’t get the “you poodled my doodle!” reaction. it’s all really silly because i wish i could just say “well your dog IS half poodle” but i can’t.
@daniel001 Yeah it's ruff on us groomers lol. People who buy doodles have a preconceived vision of what they are getting, maybe based on another doodle they saw or a photo online or something, and don't understand that there is no standard look. When their puppy grows up and doesn't look like their vision, they automatically think it's the groomer's fault for doing the "wrong" haircut (which MUST be a poodle cut because they think they know what a doodle looks like and every doodle is the same of course...)
@daniel001 I can understand what they mean. Because I dont want a poodle. But thats also why I'll never get a doodle. Because they are ... part poodle.
That said, I'm guessing they just mean they dont want to have the fancy shaped cuts like the embroidered poodles you see on a poodle skirt. Just an overall trim.
@daniel001 My groomer loves that I ask her to make my poodle look extra poodley (shaved face, bracelets, nice top knot)
Why wouldn’t you want them to look like a poodle? Isn’t that why you bought a doodle!l? Because it has poodle in it
@daniel001 Honestly the majority of the time they want a really grown out face (longer than an Eg) and the face is matted to hell.
I work at a chop shop and we don't do much dematting (part of the appeal of working there). In almost every instance they know their bitey ill behaved doodle is severely matted as they have not or "can not" brush them. Somehow expect me to be able to undo 3 months of neglect, and miraculously keep a face that is matted to the skin long in a 2 hour spot.
@daniel001 Mostly they mean they don’t want clean face and feet but I’ve also had people get mad when I leave the top of the head to floofy or “separated” the top knot from the ears vs blending them together. Funny thing is I have a standard who goes to work with me everyday and everytime someone says something about a poodle 9 times out of 10 they have never met one and my boss ALWAYS calls Kevin over to say hi lol. It’s her favorite thing to do I swear.
@daniel001 They don't even know what they want or what they're saying tbh. They don't know what to ask for, so they just say "dOnT pOoDlE mY dOoDlE" hoping you won't shave it. I won't allow customers to say that and not elaborate. I will play 20 questions with them until I know what to do. It's basically just a cop out of giving specific instructions because they don't know how to word what they want.
@daniel001 I have a Lagotto Romagnolo and since I started grooming him (with my breeders mentorship) it's very common for other owners to ask us to groom theirs too. Lagotto's are uncommon and with the way they look everyone assumes that they are doodles.
The statement we get often is "Don't make my Lagotto look like a doodle".
For the Lagotto the important parts is not to blow out the coat which straightens the curls, just go over the coat a couple of times and scissor to get any stray hairs. Don't leave the ears long and prissy. Tail is cut in a carrot shape and Never shave the stop or top of the snout
The head shape and the way the ears are left long on the front facing side to blend into the face is more complicated. But I find it funny that doodle owners don't want "poodle" and Lagotto owners don't want "doodle"
